Tag: Eric Charmelo

I discovered Midnight Texas last year at Comic Con when I went to one of the “Experience” installations. I was immediately intrigued by the show’s emphasis on outsiders and how that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I enjoyed Season One, so I was excited to see what Season Two would have to offer – and even more excited when two familiar faces took over as showrunners. Nicole Snyder and Eric Charmelo were writers on Supernatural before taking on Midnight TX, so I couldn’t wait to ask them what they’ll bring with them from their time on my favorite show.

The panel this year was in a bigger ballroom and was well attended, which always bodes well. The audience was enthusiastic and eager to hear from cast members Francois Arnaud (Manfred), Dylan Bruce (Bobo), Parisa Fitz-Henley (Fiji), Arielle Kebbel (Olivia), Peter Mensah (Lem) and Jason Lewis (Joe) joined by showrunners Nicole Snyder and Eric Charmelo and executive producer David Janollari. We were treated to a sizzle reel of last season and then a glimpse of what’s to come this year – which left me very excited for Season 2!

Snyder and Charmelo are new showrunners for Season 2, so fans wanted to know what would be different.

Eric: We wanted to do justice to Season One, so we knew Season Two had to be big. And we wanted to continue to explore the themes of Season One. Midnight is a town built of outcasts and outsiders and people who are marginalized for being different and often persecuted. So what we wanted to propose was, if that which makes you different was a choice and you can change that to assimilate, would you? Or would you choose to stay different because that which makes you different also makes you special?

We’re quoting Supernatural writer Adam Glass in that title – but we’re also feeling very lucky to be part of the SPN Family today. For those of you who missed it, there has been a lot going on in the Sherlock fandom for the past few days, after a journalist at the screening of the new season printed out some racy Sherlock fanfic and then got the show’s stars to read it aloud, apparently trying for some cheap laughs at fandom’s expense. (Ironic for a television show that is itself – literally – fanfiction). We’d be the first to stand up and say that fans shouldn’t be ashamed of however they participate in fandom – that’s the whole point of Fangasm: Supernatural Fangirls after all – but it wasn’t the fan author’s idea to share and in fact she was mortified. We reached out to her and offered to send her a copy of “Fangasm” and “Fandom At The Crossroads” – which she graciously said she appreciated but wanted to purchase for herself in fannish solidarity. We wish we could send a copy to the entire Sherlock fandom!

The Sherlock actors were respectful (unlike the journalist), but the whole kerfuffle got us thinking about how much the Supernatural cast has embraced the fandom – how much they respect their fans, how the term “SPNFamily” is used by the cast and crew and writers as much as it’s used by the fandom. We thought about Jared’s words at Burcon about how fandom lets us all be ourselves, that we shouldn’t let anyone else tell us what to like; Misha’s joyous and inspiring way of bringing us all together to do good in the world through Random Acts; Jensen joining fans and family in this year’s Buddy Walk for Downs Syndrome in Dallas; Osric cosplaying along with fandom and writing his own Kevin Tran fanfic; Kim Rhodes’ passionate defense of the Sherlock fan and all fans; the writers, actors, producers and crew members –virtually everyone involved with the show — joining fandom for live tweets of episodes. We’re lucky – and so are they. And I think we all know it.

As we blogged at the time, we invited a bunch of the SPN writers to ‘crash’ our photo op with Jared and Jensen at Burcon. It was wonderful to see the surprised looks on the boys’ faces when so many of the writers walked in! Some hadn’t met the actors before, so the whole thing was warm and wonderful (and we’re still really glad we lured them in with us!) We got the jpeg from super-photographer Chris yesterday, and sent it on to the writers. Adam Glass tweeted it out with the message “feel privileged to be part of this Supernatural family.”

Happy holidays from Fangasm! Whatever other holidays you’re celebrating this season, we hope you’re also celebrating what we all have in common – our love of Supernatural. And we hope you’re celebrating something else that we think is unique, special and important: Fandom.